Basket



(No Model.)

C. E. GATES. BASKET.

No. 463,964. Patented- Nov 24, 1891,

IntTEnTnr UNITED STATES PATENT AFFICE.

CARROLL EUGENE GATES, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

BASKET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 463,964, dated November 24, 1891.

Application filed November 28', 1890. Serial No. 372,779. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARROLL EUGENE GATEs, a citizen of the United States, residing in Oakland, county of Alameda, and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fruit and Berry Baskets,of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in constructing fruit and berry baskets from fabric or flexible material of open texture; and it consists in a metal frame of novel construction, by which the fabric forming the sides and bottom of the receptacle is stretched and held to shape, and in the general construction and combination of parts, producing an improved ventilated basket for carrying fresh fruits and berries of all kinds to market. The

parts of the frame are composed of metal, and

consist of a flat .rim formed with a view to proper stiffness and strength with extreme lightness and spring posts or uprights at the corners adapt-ed by their form and position to distend the flexible sides and bottom and give the required shape to the basket. These parts are arranged and combined with fabric cut and folded to form the sides and bottom, and preferably made from a single piece,producing a ventilated basket or receptacle of extreme lightness. The construction of these parts and the manner in which I proceed to produce a basket in accordance with my invention will be understood from the following description and the drawings that accompany and form part of this specification.

Figure 1 of the drawings represents the basket in perspective. Fig. 2 is a side view. Fig. 3 is a plan of the rim or top frame. Fig. 4 is a side view of the parts that form the frame before the fabric is applied. Fig. 5 represents in perspective one of the spring posts or uprights at the corners of the frame, together with part of the bottom cord. Fig. 6 illustrates the mode of forming the sheet metal rim and fixing it upon the edge of the fabric. Fig. 7 is a cross-section through the metal rim near the corner, the section being taken at m, Fig. 3. Fig. 8 represents the fabric for the sides and bottom before it is folded. A A indicate strips of sheet metal folded, bent, and joined together to produce a rim of rectangular shape, and B B are wire posts or uprights attached to the rim at the corners and having the quality of springing outward at the lower ends. The posts B B are preferably formed double or with two limbs, which are gradually spread apart toward the upper end, where they straddle the corner of the basket and are attached to the rim on each side thereof. These parts constitute a skeleton frame, to which the fabric 0 is secured along the top edges and at the bottom all around and by which it is also strained or drawn out smoothly at the bottom and the sides.

The strips A for the rim are produced by doubling a strip of sheet metal upon itself to form a bow or tubular part a at the middle and bringing the end portions a a together and in line with each other, as shown in Fig. 6. After being bent in this manner the strip is placed over the edge of the fabric and is clamped by flattening. the top and pressing the end portions together, so that the metal assumes the form in cross-section of the letter T. Four of these strips being secured on the edges of the fabric previously cut to shape, as illustrated in Fig. 8, they are united by curved corner-pieces A which are fixed in place by folding their edges over the'ends of the side strips and crimping or pressing them down tightly, so that they grip and hold the side strips. The strips thus bent and pressed into shape form a fiat top and a perpendicular rib or flange under it all around the rim, excepting at the corners, where the fabric is not seized by the strips, and where the shape of the corner-pieccs affords suflicient strength and stiffness without the perpendicular rib underneath.

The post or part B is produced from a single piece of spring-wire by bending it upon itself at the middle, then forming loops or eyes b near both ends, and finally bending over the ends in curves to bring the points downward. I-Ioles a are punched in the corner-pieces, and the points of the wire of each post are inserted through the corner-piece from above and bent or clinched on the under side. In this position the foot or lower end of the post is thrown out of the perpendicular and all the posts set outward at the corners of the frame, so that when drawn inward toward the IOG perpendicular and held by the fabric they exert a strain or stretching force in an outward direction, and principally at the bottom, that tends to draw out the fabric and hold it to the desired shape.

The material for the sides and bottom is formed of any light fabric, knit or woven, of open texture and suitable strength, such as mosquito netting, which will be found to answer Well for berry baskets and receptacles to hold small fruits. A piece of proper size is cut to rectangular shape, as shown in Fig. 8, and a cord or wire D is inserted or fixed in place to form the edge of the bottom, while the material outside or from the wire out to the edges forms the sides of the receptacle when bent up and stretched to shape. At each corner of the bottom cord or wire is a loop (Z to take the corresponding post of the frame, and each post has a bend or not-ch If to prevent the loop from slipping off. From this bottom cord the fabric is drawn upward to form the sides of the receptacle, and being confined at the top edge is drawn out smoothly by the expansion of the bottom. The excess of material at each angle or corner that is not attached to the rim is left loose and folded over or otherwise disposed of. The lower ends of the spring-legs may be prolonged beyond the bottom line of the receptacle to form feet, if necessary. It will be noticed that the flat rim affords support for the feet of the next basket when several baskets are placed in a pile and that the projecting rim furnishes convenient handles or means for grasping the basket. The frame covers practically no portion of the walls or bottom of the receptacle and does not interfere with thorough and unobstructed ventilation at all points.

Having thus fully described my invention,

what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. An angular fruit or berry basket having a metal rim and a body of woven fabric and provided with double corner-posts, each of which is attached at the bottom to the body of the basket and has spreading limbs, which straddle the upper corner of the basket and are attached to the rim on opposite sides of said corner, as set forth.

2. A fruit or berry basket having its sides and bottom formed of fabric or material having many interstices, a stiff metal rim, and spring-posts at the corners depending from the rim, the said fabric being attached to the rim and to the lower ends of said posts and drawn into shape to produce sides and bottom of the basket by said spring-posts.

3. The combination of a stiff metal rim, spring-posts, a bottom cord attached to and tautly connecting the feet of the posts, and a body of fabric or material having many interstiees secured to the rim and to the bottom cord, substantially as described.

4:. The combination, with the body fabric, of the metal strips A, folded and bent, as described, to clasp the edges of the fabric, the metal corners A connecting the strips A, and the spring-wire posts B, attached to the metal corners, the said parts constituting a frame that is adapted to distend and hold in shape flexible fabric to form the sides and bottom of a basket, as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand and seal.

CARROLL EUGENE GATES. LL.

Witnesses:

JAMES L. KING, EDWARD E. OSBORN. 

